Alien in the House

deaths have been incredibly distracted.”
    “The first death was right after we were outed,” Reader confirmed, looking at the file. “Huh. That’s interesting.”
    “The first one was the guy Santiago replaced, wasn’t it?” I asked as we waited for the elevator and my mind spun the facts around.
    “Yeah. I know that expression, girlfriend. What are you thinking?”
    “I’m thinking that Megalomaniac Lad is right again. I think we do have distraction going on, and I’m willing to say that the Mastermind, or at least this Operation’s Mastermind, waited until he or she had the perfect storm of distractions going on to launch. If over twenty Reps had died like this two years ago, both Chuckie and MJO would have been on top of it.”
    “If your timeline’s right, then the Mastermind also waited until the President suspended this year’s elections,” Tim said. “Whether that’s because they expected some of those now dead to lose their elections, another reason, or just convenient coincidence we don’t know.”
    “And who knows if we’ll find out,” Reader added.
    “I can buy all that,” Chuckie said slowly. “But we still don’t have a lot to go on.”
    “Well, I also think we have a couple of key points, one of which is that whoever’s in charge likely knows you and Oliver, or at least your underground reputations, so to speak, because, elections suspended or no, I think they chose this plot’s start time specifically to stay off your radars. And the other is this—why did whoever try to kill Jeff before he was sworn in?” The elevator arrived.
    “Convenience, accessibility, guard was down,” Chuckie ticked off. He motioned for me to go in the elevator.
    “Stupid placement and timing, random location, and guard wasn’t down since we’d had three people die around us in less than twenty-four hours,” I shared as I stayed put. Wanted us to think this through ourselves, because I felt we were getting somewhere. The others would add in soon enough.
    Chuckie sighed as the elevator doors closed. “In your own time, Kitty.”
    “As it should be.”
    “I’ll play,” Tim said. “What if the entire point of all of this is to ensure that the person representing our district in New Mexico isn’t pro-alien? The former rep is killed and a really anti-alien guy runs for the position. Santiago was a teacher and wasn’t expected to even come close, let alone win in a landslide. So, maybe our Mastermind isn’t happy that he’s elected. Maybe Eugene lied and was always after Santiago.”
    “I’d say there’s a high probability that at least part of the point is to ensure an anti-alien rep is in place. But I think we have more going on—you wouldn’t want to kill as many people as have died, because fewer would make it all seem less suspect. And, if everyone thought the former rep died of natural causes, Eugene killing Santiago doesn’t scream ‘conspiracy.’”
    “But the poison was put into Brewer’s glass,” Reader reminded us. “And the only reason Santiago drank it was that he’d almost choked to death, which is not something anyone could have predicted.”
    A thought occurred. “Hang on.” Conveniently my phone was still in my hand. Dialed. This wasn’t a discussion I wanted to have over the intercom system.
    “Yes, Kitty darling? How may I be of service?”
    “Pierre, who was in charge of the drinks portion of our Dinner Party of Death? Specifically, who was in charge of making sure the water glasses were kept filled?”
    “Hmmm . . . let me verify. Ah, here it is. Annette Dier. She was part of Chef’s Beverage Team. Why?”
    That sounded familiar. “Spell that last name please, Pierre.” He did. Memory shared that this matched the name of the SWAT guy I’d spoken to when I was going to interview Eugene. “Did Chef vet his choices for safety within our Embassy?”
    “Oh, yes, absolutely. Everyone had to go through a screening.”
    “Was she in charge, or just the water girl?”
    “Just one of the beverage staff, but she was assigned to your portion of the room for water refills during dinner.”
    “I’d like to see her screening results, Pierre. In the most extreme, ‘we will accuse you of trying to murder our people and destroy our party’ way if Chef is unwilling to provide confidential information. In fact, if Chef doesn’t come across with this info immediately, please call Chuckie and have him take Chef into custody. In the meantime, we need